10/20/99

It was the first PRESS Day of Tokyo Motor Show today. I arrived at Makuhari Masse early in the morning. I came directly to Toyota corner of the exhibition hall where a small car called as Will Vi was shown to public first time. The car was developed and built only by young talented staffs completely free from management intervention.iLeft picture is a copy of picture cards distributed at Toyota booth.)

The car which they developed and built only in one year looks strange but has familiarity with me. It used the same platform as of Vitz. Its total length and width are almost the same as of Vitz but it is higher than Vitz. It looks much bigger than Vitz.

Toyota established a virtual company for these young group within the company. Mr. Jyunzo Shimzu, President of virtual company, introduced me to Messes Jun Yasumatsu and Shinji Hamada. Both of them are young and ambitious designers. They showed me a picture and explained me that the origin of this car is a carrier with a big pumpkin on it as shown in the below picture. They brushed up the original idea and reached a present silhouette.
It is powered by a 1300cc engine, one size bigger than Vitz's. It is easy to ride on or ride off due to big doors. The view from front seats is big enough. But I felt the design of speedometer located at the center of front dash panel was not finished yet.
The pricing of car will be the most important. In order to continue this way of car development, its price must cover the cost of development and manufacturing. Meanwhile the customers will study how much premium over standard car price they pay for its attractiveness.

It is said to sell it from this fall. The picture cards distributed at Toyota corneriabove right picture is a copy of the said cards) make me to expect them to devise a new marketing of the car.

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